Hotblast Year 3

I shake 3-4 times a day.
Quite often, 1/2 is hot coals
I poke, it seems, a dozen times.
Liking the new curved poker.

After breaking up clumps with the straight one, I dig out all the corners and back.
I use it to rake the whole coal bed
.
Occasionally I find clumps that I pick out and any rocks I find

Properly operating grates are very important. Pokers help, but they won't replace a good grate system that is operating correctly.

Mine definitely aren't working properly.

I get a lot of ash on the siderails.
The bent poker helps but doesn't do a complete job.

Wondering if this may be a bad idea.
Using my Hotblast "forge", maybe heating the other end and trying to flatten it a little.?
I'd have a little wider surface to work those rails.
A little spade type thing

The new coal seems to burn.

At 7:15, I put 2 shovels of near softball sized lumps on.
Firebed was fairly low temp after cleaning a tray and a half of ashes and hot coals,
Left the ash door open for 30 minutes.
Overdoor was 550* and supply pipe was 200*.
Closed the ash door, over fire air and MPD to 1/2.

Feel the difference in the house in that short period

How long does it take to burn the volatiles off?
I think I recall that Don mentioned 20 minutes?

I can easily go an hour with over fire air open.
Usually I need to go down one time in the middle of that to get underneath and break up the tarry stuff

Have I told you that I really hate this furnace?

larryfoster wrote:Have I told you that I really hate this furnace?

You are not alone,i never used 1 of those & I hate them too.

Yesterday, I had 11 "touches" from 7 AM to 11 PM.
The day before, 10.
1/2 the time I add a little coal, 1/2 the time just doing things to make it function.
Poking it to break up the mass and get some air up through, opening ash door, closing ash door.
.
And, yesterday, which was near 50, it was late afternoon before the house got really warm.

I just realized I'm not saving that much money, either.

Couple hundred bucks for the winter.

Throw the filth in.

I could, literally, take a shower every time I tend the furnace.
I remember when I was little and my dad came home from working in the deep mines.
They didn't have showers yet.

He was black as the ace of spades.
I'm not quite that dirty but my face, hands and forearms up to my elbows are black.

And the house...

Thanks for allowing me to rant.

I would not buy that furnace if I ever did central heat after your troubles.

Me, neither.
But, you can't change these things out like socks

Did a burn out and clean out today.
I wouldn't call it a thorough cleaning but it's only been 26 days since I ran a brush through the chimney and pipes and inspected pipes around 17 days ago.
I did get some junk out of the pipes

Stuck the Shop Vac up and didn't get a lot of stuff out.
And surprisingly little junk from the firebox.

larryfoster wrote:Did a burn out and clean out today.
I wouldn't call it a thorough cleaning but it's only been 26 days since I ran a brush through the chimney and pipes and inspected pipes around 17 days ago.
I did get some junk out of the pipes

Stuck the Shop Vac up and didn't get a lot of stuff out.
And surprisingly little junk from the firebox.

Sounds like the L shaped poker is helping.

I'd say it is, Corey

I may never have to fire the furnace again this winter.


Here's the 15 day forecast
https://weather.com/weather/tenday/l/16218:4:US